What is a Carbon Footprint? [Simplified]

Just like an actual footprint, each person’s carbon footprint is the print we leave on our planet by any action that releases carbons! Now, what are carbons? Well, they are the harmful gasses, such as Co2, that are released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. The more energy we use, the larger our individual footprints will be!

To put it into perspective, we often think of our carbon footprint being the type of exhaust that our vehicles release, but it’s actually so much larger than that! Actually every step of fuel sourcing, including pumping it, containing it, refining it, then transporting it, is accounted for when calculating our footprints. Not to mention, manufacturing our vehicles also creates a lot of carbon emissions. In other words, you and everything you own has its very own carbon footprint! From your vehicle, to your electronics, and even your food, everything we have access to that is purchased leaves a trail of pollution. It is virtually impossible to have no carbon footprint. 

The good news is, there are many ways we can make little changes that minimize, or reduce the carbon footprint we leave on our planet! We at Desert Sun want to be role models in the world of sustainable business practices. We seek to reduce our footprint by committing ourselves to certain initiatives, projects and business practices that we know are better for the planet! But of course, as we tend to do, we began asking ourselves, “how do we go above and beyond simply reducing our carbon footprint?”. 

And that, my friends, is how we arrived at the idea of our Carbon Climate and Coffee initiative, where we have pledged to be completely carbon neutral by 2025. 

I know what you’re thinking.. “Okay great, but what on earth is carbon neutrality? And why should I care about that?”

Well, remember the concept of carbon footprints and emissions? The whole goal of carbon neutrality is to reduce the amount of carbon, or greenhouse gasses, that we release into the atmosphere, along with enacting certain practices that remove carbon from the atmosphere! The goal of all of this effort is that when everything is calculated, our emissions and removal balance out to a beautiful ZERO!